Celebrity Eclipse Sky Lounge closed during 12 day cruise

[the penguins]

3 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Another location that you would cruise on a small ship would be Bora Bora ...

Fortunately we got in on Solstice (also Moorea) before the big ships were banned. 

Happy memories

[chemmo]

10 minutes ago, the penguins said:

Fortunately we got in on Solstice (also Moorea) before the big ships were banned. 

Happy memories

Yes, definitely a highlight of the TP…

[PTC DAWG]

Host Anne is on point..

[bunny76]

Does anyone know if the Sky lounge is often closed for private functions on Equinox? 

[39august]

I've been on EQuinox several times the last 4 years and have never encountered this. 

[C 2 C]

13 hours ago, zitsky said:

So what was the response on the ship and from corporate to all those complaints?  Did anyone tell you?

ZIP

[NMTraveller]

11 hours ago, the penguins said:

Fortunately we got in on Solstice (also Moorea) before the big ships were banned. 

Happy memories

I was scheduled to sail on Pacific Princess there with about 686 passengers.  Then it was sold to a premium/luxury line. 🤔

Edited August 29 by NMTraveller

[cruisestitch]

On 8/28/2024 at 3:35 AM, Georgia_Peaches said:

I think the key to your comment is that the quilters occupy the conference rooms, not a popular public space at the front of the ship. I wonder why they don’t open the conference rooms to PW?  Maybe because there’s  no bar for people to get liquored up before bidding? 💁‍♀️

One conference room is being used for storage of the special artwork. Celebrity Central is being used for cocktail hours and special talks.  They have a portable bar that they bring in to Celebrity Central

[the penguins]

14 hours ago, chemmo said:

Yes, definitely a highlight of the TP…

We actually preferred Moorea as there was much more to see inland.

However the WW2 gun history of Bora Bora was also interesting - who knew that without WW2 the tourist industry on BB as we see it today would have been non existent. Before the war the reef totally enclosed the island making access impossible. The US navy blasted a gap through the reef to create a safe anchorage and by so doing opened up the island to the tourist industry we see today.

[gowentgone]

I could not agree more with your post about the Sky Lounge being taken over by Park West. I am an Elite Plus CC member with over 60 sailings on Celebrity.  I prefer the Solstice class ships over the Edge class mainly because of the Sky Lounge.  It is a place to mingle with other cruisers, have a peaceful view through all the large windows, enjoy quiet solitude, relax in comfortable chairs, read a book, etc. Almost every time I went there the sign said Private Function. Park West seemed to be the most frequent group there.  It was the only disappointment of our cruise experience going back-to-back to Greenland and Iceland from Newark to Boston. 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

We had friends on the Iceland to Boston cruise 

They said it was packed at every lounge because it was too cold to sit outside.

They booked an inside cabin , it was one of the exciting deals, she was trying to do some work in Sky Lounge and was kick because of PW , I guess she talked to GS , and sent a bottle of wine to her room

[zitsky]

48 minutes ago, gowentgone said:

I could not agree more with your post about the Sky Lounge being taken over by Park West. I am an Elite Plus CC member with over 60 sailings on Celebrity.  I prefer the Solstice class ships over the Edge class mainly because of the Sky Lounge.  It is a place to mingle with other cruisers, have a peaceful view through all the large windows, enjoy quiet solitude, relax in comfortable chairs, read a book, etc. Almost every time I went there the sign said Private Function. Park West seemed to be the most frequent group there.  It was the only disappointment of our cruise experience going back-to-back to Greenland and Iceland from Newark to Boston. 

Forgive me if it’s wrong to ask but…. What did you do about it?

[cruisestitch]

There is nothing that can be done about it. Parkwest has paid for and reserved the Sky Lounge during many hours of the cruise and they can’t be changed mid-cruise.  
 

Strong letters of complaint and poor ratings for the ship might get the company’s attention and keep them from doing it again, but I doubt it

[zitsky]

20 minutes ago, cruisestitch said:

There is nothing that can be done about it. Parkwest has paid for and reserved the Sky Lounge during many hours of the cruise and they can’t be changed mid-cruise.  
 

Strong letters of complaint and poor ratings for the ship might get the company’s attention and keep them from doing it again, but I doubt it

I guarantee that nothing will change if all that people do is sit on Cruise Critic and complain.

[OldDECie]

1 hour ago, cruisestitch said:

There is nothing that can be done about it. Parkwest has paid for and reserved the Sky Lounge during many hours of the cruise and they can’t be changed mid-cruise.  
 

Strong letters of complaint and poor ratings for the ship might get the company’s attention and keep them from doing it again, but I doubt it

Been following this discussion ... what I find it interesting in reviewing the marketing information for Eclipse; it presents the Sky Observation Lounge as a general use location for the cruise ... no limitations to its use:

A unique music venue with spectacular ocean views.
The perfect daytime spot to gaze over the sea with a cocktail in hand. At night, the space comes alive with live music and dancing. Featuring twelve signature Zodiac cocktails based on your astrological sign, all prepared by flaring mixologists.

 

Other areas of the ship that do have limitations or extra charges are clearly detailed (Retreat, specialty restaurants etc.)

The Retreat Lounge
Michael's Club is exclusive to guests of The Retreat®. This warmly inviting lounge offers a fully stocked and expertly staffed bar, gourmet bites and live entertainment.

 

Many times in this thread it is mentioned that Celebrity was compensated for Parkwest's use of the room ... shouldn't it be the passengers that were compensated?? OBC??

 

Just an observation.

[cruisestitch]

Just as a sidenote, there used to be 12 signature cocktails but now there are only six. I don’t know why they removed the second page of signature cocktail from the menus there.

 

So anyway, that description is out of date.

[gowentgone]

18 hours ago, zitsky said:

Forgive me if it’s wrong to ask but…. What did you do about it?

I went to Guest Relations and they handed me the Sky Lounge weekly schedule when it would be closed. I told them that was a major disappointment to me but the woman said "sorry, there is nothing she can do to change it." My thoughts were to write about this on Cruise Critic when I returned home and I must say I was both glad and amazed to see 311 posts about this already done. 

[39august]

And did you send your thoughts to executiveoffice@celebrity.com? No point in complaining on CC. All of us need to send to the main office. I did so last week. I expected no answer and received none. But they do pay attention if enough people express their thoughts. We did this with getting Decoy back on the premium package several months ago...and do we all remember "cookiegate"? 

[Travel-and-See]

14 hours ago, SteveCascio said:

Been following this discussion ... what I find it interesting in reviewing the marketing information for Eclipse; it presents the Sky Observation Lounge as a general use location for the cruise ... no limitations to its use:

A unique music venue with spectacular ocean views.
The perfect daytime spot to gaze over the sea with a cocktail in hand. At night, the space comes alive with live music and dancing. Featuring twelve signature Zodiac cocktails based on your astrological sign, all prepared by flaring mixologists.

I do think there is a line they could cross into "false advertising" - I'm not sure where that line is.

 

If it was for 1 day of the cruise, I would still be annoyed but I could shrug it off. But multiple / all days is terrible. I would be asking for partial refund / credit. 

[Random Cruizer]

1 hour ago, gowentgone said:

I went to Guest Relations and they handed me the Sky Lounge weekly schedule when it would be closed. I told them that was a major disappointment to me but the woman said "sorry, there is nothing she can do to change it." My thoughts were to write about this on Cruise Critic when I returned home and I must say I was both glad and amazed to see 311 posts about this already done. 

 

I've got to 2 Equinox 10-day cruises coming up next year--I'll politely stand there until they give me some OBC as compensation. Thanks to the this thread, I'll go with printouts of what they tell me about this ship on the website.

[zitsky]

2 hours ago, 39august said:

And did you send your thoughts to executiveoffice@celebrity.com? No point in complaining on CC. All of us need to send to the main office. I did so last week. I expected no answer and received none. But they do pay attention if enough people express their thoughts. We did this with getting Decoy back on the premium package several months ago...and do we all remember "cookiegate"? 

 

I agree with you.  Complaining on CC does nothing useful.  People need to complain to corporate, especially people who have done multiple cruises or have elite status.  They may not listen to me with only a few cruises but I think they would listen to a Zenith.

[C 2 C]

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

 

I agree with you.  Complaining on CC does nothing useful.  People need to complain to corporate, especially people who have done multiple cruises or have elite status.  They may not listen to me with only a few cruises but I think they would listen to a Zenith.

No, corporate is counting the $$$ that Park West paid.  It's not the ship, it's corporate selling the same space twice.  Only trivia players were really affected by being sardined in the Ensemble lounge.  Oh and whale watchers?  Pax looking for a quiet place?  A comfortable place to avoid the cold around the pool?  Zeniths are no more important than any other passenger expecting what they thought they paid for and not getting it.  It's all in the small print. There were 35 Zeniths on board, 13 of those pinnacles.

[zitsky]

17 minutes ago, C 2 C said:

No, corporate is counting the $$$ that Park West paid.  It's not the ship, it's corporate selling the same space twice.  Only trivia players were really affected by being sardined in the Ensemble lounge.  Oh and whale watchers?  Pax looking for a quiet place?  A comfortable place to avoid the cold around the pool?  Zeniths are no more important than any other passenger expecting what they thought they paid for and not getting it.  It's all in the small print. There were 35 Zeniths on board, 13 of those pinnacles.

If status doesn’t matter to Celebrity in terms of feedback, and you are treated the same as anyone else, then why do you pursue status with a company?

 

Yes I want my feedback to be heard.  Yes there is a difference in the service I receive when I’m in a Sky Suite versus Aqua.  Yes I think the opinions of elites carry more weight than mine.

[Mr. Click]

20 hours ago, zitsky said:

I guarantee that nothing will change if all that people do is sit on Cruise Critic and complain.

Some of us start here and move on to a proper letter of complaint to the executive offices.   Coming here first can be a good sounding board. 

[Honolulu Blue]

51 minutes ago, Mr. Click said:

Some of us start here and move on to a proper letter of complaint to the executive offices.   Coming here first can be a good sounding board. 

I am thankful for those that came here, because I would not have heard about this situation had it not been mentioned here. 👍